Chrysalis
by medboflight
Summary: Carey and Jack go to Bolder to visit one of Carey's old roomates. While there, they discover a change in his behavior. What is the cause of this? Also, Molly makes a new online buddy. Why is it that she seems so familiar?
1. Default Chapter

Hey everyone. This story is the first of my 14 to 15 story series. I recently got my hands on an interview with one of the writers of the first and second season. Many of the subject matters in the stories to come, and this one, are those that they had planned on touching on, but never were able to, due to Alexz Johnson coming in and the whole three season limit. 

This story is based upon the idea that was to be used for a story in place of the "Avatar" episode. Disney felt that its subject matter was to intense to touch upon because of the involvement with alcohol abuse. 

I hope that I will do it justice in the time to come and that you all enjoy it. 


	2. one

The sun was just peaking over the mountains, as the trunk of a blue 1967 Ford Mustang Coupe slammed shut. 

" Now you're sure that you don't want to go with us?" Jack asked his mother.

" No, you guys don't want a mommy around cramping your style. I need to do some me time. You know, do some shopping, write some songs. Since Fi's gone on her own thing with Candy, she said I could check out her laptop. May do that," Molly replied. 

" Alright," Jack said as he hugged Molly, " Bye Mom,"

" You boys take care,"

" Later, Mol," Carey said as he slid in to the driver's seat and adjusted it for his long body. They had about an hour and a half trip up to Bolder. Carey and Jack were on their way to spend the long weekend up at Michael's, Carey's old dorm mate, loft. Carey hadn't seen him in almost a year, and a visit was past due.

"So tell me about this Michel dude," Jack said. 

" Ah, he's awesome. Some people would say that he's conceded, but he's just got a confidence in himself. Had this really sweet girlfriend named April. You'll love him man," Carey replied as he merged into traffic.

" So, uh, how are the girls in Boulder?" Jack asked.

" Oh, we'll defiantly go cruising for the girlies," Carey said with a smile.

" You mean _I _will go cruising for the girlies. You're going to buy my sister a nice present," Jack said without missing a beat.

Carey only laughed in response to this. He was glad that Jack was finally okay with the idea of he and Fi. He'd been hesitant at first, but he'd seen how happy the both of the where and then it settled well with him.

Back in Hope Springs, Molly was bustling around the kitchen, not doing anything really. There where still boxes to be up packed, since moving back into the old house. She had made the choice after the fact that the house had not sold and the one in town would cost so much with the new roof needed, the floors needing replacing and other trouble. Had she known about these things, she might not even consider moving in.

She was humming a Doors song as she passed by the table in the dinning room where the laptop sat. She had her attention drawn to it and figured 'what the hey'.

She turned it on and when to a chat section. The user rooms where quite vile looking but within them, she found a room titled " Classic Rockers" and this of course got her attention.

" Hmm, this might be nice," Molly said to herself. 

She entered under the name of PKB since nothing else came to mind. She didn't say much, just watched what other people said. She often liked to just observe things; of course it was usually visually. 

Then one user instant messaged her.

__

Hello. It said. _You're a fan of the PK Band huh? I've followed them for like forever. Its like they're my extended family._

"Well isn't that neat?" Molly said. The continued to converse. The person was a female and she seemed to really know her stuff. She was also hauntingly familiar also. 


	3. two

Cary and Jack arrived in Boulder around noon.  They parked and Carey scanned the parking lot for Michael's car. He didn't see it. Kinda worried him that Michael might not be home. Carey shrugged it off, figuring maybe he got a different one or something. They climbed up the outside step and Carey reached out his ring clad left hand and knocked on the door numbered 343. There was a long pause and then came the sound of something crashing on the inside. 

"Hold up just a minute," a voice from inside called out. 

"I need to warn you, he's not the neatest guy around," Carey told Jack, "But he's a freakin' genius,"

"Supposed to be a common trait among them. So what's your excuse?" Jack replied and Carey answered with a smack on the back of Jack's head.

A boy about five foot nine with dark brown hair and light eyes answered the door while still buttoning his shirt.

"Carey Bell. Damn boy, the music bizz did you good," he said

"You look like shit on the other hand, Michael," Carey teased his friend. 

"Ah get off it. I fell asleep, leave me alone," 

Jack cleared his throat as the two passed insults back and forth.

"Oh right. Michael, this is Jack Phillips. His mom's kinda my boss," 

Michael shook Jack's hand and stepped to the side to let the two in. He motioned to the couch for them to sit down, which they did.

          "So Jack, you're the one with _the _sister, right?" Michael asked as he put things away in the kitchen.

"The sister? Yeah, that would be me," Jack shot a look to Carey. In return, Carey just shrugged and gave a "what can I say?" look. 

"You guys want something to drink? I've got soda, milk, orange juice, something lingering in the back that I don't trust, and some beer and malts," 

"Nah, that's cool," Carey said.

"Well, you guys know where it's at, so feel free to help yourselves," 

Michael came back in the room and plopped down into the broken down green recliner he and Carey had found by a dumpster behind an old flea market east of town.  The room was littered with rented videos, magazines, and half used up note books. Not really so cluttered as to impair movement, but enough to notice. To put in fewer words, it was a guy that lived alone's place.  

"So how's your brother? He still with that one one friend of yours?" Michael asked of Carey.

"Daria? Of course.  They're as happy as ever. He's getting on good at Santa Cruz, but he misses home like crazy," 

"By that he means getting free meals and having someone do his laundry," Jack said with an arch of the eyebrow.

"Eh, Clu'll learn to get past it sometime like we all do," Carey said with a smile. He really was happy to get away from work and home, even though he loved them both dearly. Sometimes you need something new. Not that life ever really got boring, the girls made sure of that. But, sometimes a little bit of laid back normality with the boys was a gift received with open arms. 

"Dude, is that a tattoo on your wrist?" Michael inquired the guitar boy of his birthday present to himself.  Actually, he had wanted a tattoo but Fiona and Daria came up with the ideal.  He decided to get it on his left wrist so he could cover it up with the big buckle watch to hide it from Irene as long as he could. 

"Um, yeah, I got it on my twenty-first," Carey replied as Michael examined it.

"Sweet. What's it suppose to be?"

"It's a Gaelic life symbol. Wasn't the best experience of my life either because of the knot work all through it. But it's worth it. Gonna cherish the meaning forever," 


	4. three

Hours passed by and time soon found itself at the witching hour. The boys were engaged in an old cheesy slasher movie they had muted and started narrating it due to the tequila bottle being passed around and the malt chasers.

"Robert? Do you think its safe here?" Jack said in a girlish voice.

"Of course Gina. Now let's breed like rabbits," Carey said deeply and then burped, causing them to all erupt in to childish laughter. 

"Man, Bell, we know to have some fun, huh?" Michael said as he reached back for the tequila bottle.

"Yup. Five bucks says you can't finish that of in one breath," Carey said.

"You're on man," Michael said after observing the bottle.  He bubbled down the rest of the bottle, worm and all, with a grimace. He then opened a coke to soothe his burning throat. 

"Another five says you'll be farting fire balls," Carey added.

"Right now, sleep is good," Michael said as he laid on his stomach and buried his face in his arms, "Jack's already beat us to it, looks like," 

Carey looked back and Jack was zonked out with a half of bottle of a malt drink in his hand. Carey took the bottle out of his hand and popped the cap back on it to put it back in the refrigerator. He the grabbed a blanket and covered his friend before kicking off his shoes and lying down on the couch. 


	5. four

***Just a little note. I know that some of you have noticed I kinda got off the wagon of going exactly with the way this was originally intended. My purpose for this is because I would like some element to be my own and if I kept everything just so, it would turn into an after school special's evil twin.  So I'm just kinda doing my own thing and keeping may aspects of the original material in also. So, if it makes you mad, sorry, but that's the way things are.  Either way, I hope you enjoy it some what. Thanks***

Molly sat with a cup of coffee warm in her hands. She was thinking of the past. This woman she'd met online was so familiar feeling. Within the stay of a night, Molly had confided a lot in her, including her name and several pictures of her and her family Fi had. 

The woman said her name was Myra. She said she was a thirty-five year old museum secretary, which meant she answered phones and directed calls, with a passion for music and history. She was currently living in Pensacola, but that could soon change. She didn't stay in one place long. 

Myra commented on how beautiful the children where and how she remembered them as babies when Rick brought them on during a late night TV interview shortly after Fiona was born.  She said how it was funny how quickly a wrinkly baby could grow into a woman. Molly asked her not to remind her. She only had about two years before her baby graduated. 

Myra sympathized, even though she claimed no children of her own. She'd tried in the past but had failed. She told Molly about how lucky she was to have them. Molly agreed.   She lived in fear everyday that she would loose them. 

She said she thought she couldn't really protect them. Just like she couldn't protect Rick. She'd dreamed of a dark cloud surrounding and pulling him into its abyss. But, no matter how she pleaded or fought, he was lost.

Everyone near to Rick bared a scar, but Molly, she still bled. At times she thought she was going half crazy. Times when she'd be on stage and look out into the crowd and see his face, times when she thought she heard his voice whispering or singing in her ear. 

The worse was when Fi ran a fever reaching on hundred and two when she was three. She wouldn't stop crying and she couldn't eat or sleep. Molly was so tired and couldn't think straight that she broke down and wept. As her face was buried in her knees, she heard Fi calm slowly and she could have sworn she heard the sound of Rick's voice singing a lullaby on the air.  That was impossible. She would have believed it years before, but not anymore.

Just like the time Fi said she'd seen him on that roof in New York.  Rachel and Jack had watched her dangling from the roof and heard her cry out instinctively for her mom. Molly had been performing and felt a cold chill pass through her during the bridge of Love is Broken. 

She took Fi into her arms like she always did when something like that happened. No one had said anything, but they knew she knew.

It was just one more thing to add to the stacks of things she couldn't change. It was the reason she tried to keep Fi sheltered from the connection with Rick and the secrets of the family. She didn't want her to face the torment like she had to face. Damn John Kane for making her do it. She loved John dearly, but, he had no right. It was her child, not his. 

Yes, there was a time she wasn't the best for judgment. From the time she was seventeen until she was twenty-three, she'd had a problem with drinking. The visions had intensified when she hit sixteen. She struggled with them. She never really knew what they meant until it was too late. So, she turned to drowning them. They never went away completely, but she continued to drink. In her mind, she thought it was the only way.

Rick changed her. A drink didn't pass her lips for years. That was, until the accident. Thank God for Ned and Irene. With her parents in Pennsylvania, Rick's in Florida and Nevada, her brother in Detroit, and her sister unwilling, she had no one else to watch her children or her.

The checked her into a rehab center and paid for everything, never thinking of asking for reimbursement. That's just the kind of people they were. Selfless when it came to the people they loved.

But Molly had been sober for fourteen years. She never once though of going back to it. It wasn't for herself, but for her children and her family. She didn't wasn't to fall into that lush mother who used to be a rock star and had her kids taken from her category. Never. 

Molly wiped a tear from her eye. Her coffee had long since gone cold. She told Myra that she was sorry, but she had to go. She then ran upstairs and vomited. The memories were just too much. 


	6. Five

Jack woke up to the sound of a ringing cell phone. It was Carey's, but he'd been in the shower for the past five minutes.  Jack lifted up his head, the corner of a magazine sticking to his face, and reached for the phone. It was Fi. 

She asked him where Carey was and if they were having fun. Jack said the vice on his head was saying that they had a little too much fun. Fi laughed at him and told him to be careful and that she loved him. 

Jack hung up the phone and slowly stood up. He kept his neck arched and furrowed his eyebrows. Bad way to start off the day. He stumbled into the kitchen where Michael was and braced himself on the counter. 

"First hangover huh?" Michael asked to which Jack nodded, "No fun is it. Well, here, this should take the edge off. Nasty tomato juice and a bit of liquor, but it helps,"

"Ah man, it stinks," Jack said, "I can't,"

"Just man up and throw it back,"

Jack did and mad the worst face imaginable. Care came in and was still pulling on his shirt on to where it felt right. He laughed at him. 

"Hair of the dog, huh?" Carey said. 

"Now I remember why I didn't drink before," Jack said. Michael smiled and he took a swig of the liquor. 

"Little early isn't it?" Carey asked. Michael shook his head and poured a bowl of cereal.  

"Just a little hit in the morning to get past it," he answered, "You need to get some food on your stomach and possibly a hot shower, Jack," 

"Shower first. Food later," Jack said as he held on to his stomach and went into the bathroom. 

He let the warm water pour over his face and down his back. He'd woken up with a strange feeling passing through him. With his blue eyes closed and the pain in his head passing, he began to remember. 

His dream had him surrounded by fire. He couldn't get away from it, yet it was not hot and he did not burn. Tiny droplets of what he though were water pattered on his head. This was soothing to him and he sat down. But the fire kept coming in closer and he cried out. Suddenly, the fire parted and his mother stepped through. She reached out and opened her hand. A white moth flew from it. 

"Feed it with fire and essence of life," she said. 


End file.
